Small dog boarding while you are on vacation:

As we are not a kennel and your dog will live right in our own home as one of our family, we are only taking small dogs at this time (25lbs & under)

Your precious pooch will enjoy all the comforts of home. We only board a maximum of 2 dogs at a time so you can relax knowing your dogs special needs will be met. We try to maintain as much of your dogs “normal routine” as possible while you are away. We provide regular email updates inlcuding lots of photos of your dogs stay with us. We have a fully fenced backyard and offer daily walks.

Dogs must be pet friendly, vaccinated, potty trained, and preferably crate trained as a safety precaution. We do not let dogs play unsupervised.

NEW! TAXI SERVICE

Travelling can be stressful at the best of times. With planes to catch and airport lineups the last thing you want to do is worry about dropping the dog off! Why not have us come by and pick him up at your convenience? Your dog will be safe & securely crated in our vehicle during transport.

Drop off at the end of your trip is also available. Some location restrictions. $10.00 each way. Additional fees may apply outside Surrey. 

Basic Care Package

$30.00/dog per night (10% off stays of 7 days for more) Plus Tax. *Additional Holiday rates may apply

Spaw Package

For dogs in our care 7 days or more only. $50.00 (flat fee)

• A special outing to a park, beach, or hike
• Basic training practice (1 hour lesson)
• Bath
• Brushing
• Ear Cleaning
• Nail Trim
• Toothbrushing
• Special healthy meal dish (chicken, rice, potato, veggies, etc)
• & Massage

A full Board & Train program *may* be available upon a case by case basis- inquire for details

We still get calls from people who seem astonished that we have our own dogs as well, which always amuses me. Of course we do! If you haven’t poked around the rest of our website let me introduce our pack.

BamBam our Yorkie – 6yrs, Oliver Golden Retriever – 1 year, Merlin the mini aussie – 3yrs, & Helen Chihuahua X 1 year (not pictured)… and last but not least, our housecat Orion, who is the king of patience.

What our clients have to say:

“I take my little 3lb Yorkie ‘Maggie’ with me everywhere; to work, the bank, even the dentist! So needless to say when I have to go somewhere that Maggie can’t, I worry. There is no way I would put her in a kennel. I want her to keep the same living and comfort she gets at home.  That is exactly what Desiree provided for Maggie; the loving, comfortable home environment that she is used to.

A few days before I was to travel, I emailed Desiree letting her know how worried I was about leaving Maggie. Desiree’s reply wasn’t just a note saying ‘oh Maggie will be fine’. It was a lengthy email assuring me everything will be fine and at the end she said “try not to worry too much mama, she’s in good hands.” The best part was that I got to see that she WAS in good hands by the emails Desiree sent everyday with pictures of Maggie and a note on how things were going. This made my trip all that much better! I don’t trust many people with my dog, but I definitely trust Desiree.”

Shannon & Maggie

Clicker Tricks – Make your dog a movie star! (or at least impress your friends…)

Looking for some new challenges and ways to have fun with your dog? Try our Clicker tricks class! Using a training method used on a variety of species from horses to dolphins, clicker training offers a fun way to communicate with your dog. The ‘click’ sound lets your dog know exactly when they’ve got the right answer. It also speeds up learning and helps your dog understand complex tasks easier.

Go beyond basics with tricks like:

• Shake a paw/or High five
• Spin/Twirl
• Play dead
• Beg
• Crawl
• Rollover
• Touch (with your nose)
• and more…

We provide Clickers, but if you have your own please bring it.

Cost: $20.00 for a single 60 min class.

Pulling on the leash is one of the most common complaints of many dog owners. You are not alone if walking your dog is a less than enjoyable task. This workshop will build your dogs attentiveness towards you, the skills of a simple Heel (semi formal), and a loose leash walk with waits and u-turns. You will be provided with multiple exercises and tips & tricks that you can easily take home and put into practice.

This is a beginner to intermediate level course and is not recommended for young puppies less than 5 months of age or very advanced dogs looking to polish their skills.

Check registration page for next available dates

Cost $50.00

Have you ever wished you could trust your dog off leash, but aren’t confident he could come back when called?

Workshops are designed to focus on one particular topic, in this case: “come when called”.

They are 1 hour workshops, once a week, for 2 consecutive weeks, with a minimum of 3, and maximum of 6, dogs. There is zero tolerence for aggression in this workshop. Dogs in this workshop MUST be dog friendly as they will be in very close contact with other dogs to create a distracting “park like” setting. Overly friendly and excited dogs who don’t listen are ok! If you have a questionable dog we would be happy to work with you privately on your “come when called”, or other, skills.

The sessions will build a proper foundation and help you to deal with distractions.

This is a beginner to intermediate level course and is not recommended for young puppies less than 5 months of age or very advanced dogs looking to polish their skills.

Check registration page for next available dates

Cost $50.00

I have to say a pet peeve of mine (no pun intended) is how unrealistic some dog owners can be about how long it takes to train a dog. It can take months and months of dedicated and consistent hard work to see results sometimes depending on the task you are trying to achieve. It can take hundreds of repetitions to change behaviour.

For example, look at it this way… how long would it take YOU to change a behaviour? To lose weight? To quit smoking? To stop biting your nails? To teach your child to swim, or ride a bike, or read, or..? Well you get the idea. So why do you think it should take 6-8 hours of classroom work to teach your dog all he needs to know in life? Then, even worse, to be disappointed that he isn’t meeting your standards of obedience.

To say that I, or any other Trainer for that matter, could adequately train your puppy or dog in 6-8 weeks is more than misleading. It’s a lie! To complete only one set of lessons, to me, is like stopping your human child’s education after Elementary School. You can’t possibly expect them to know what they were not taught. As a family dog style trainer, myself, I don’t expect your dog to be a “University Graduate” so to speak, I could care less about fancy footwork and tricks, but he should at least get his “High School Diploma” in if you want him to be a well behaved member of the family.

If you want your dog to sit with you at Starbucks, go camping with the family, greet people and dogs politely, walk on the leash without pulling you around and have a chance at coming back when called off leash- you need more than a puppy or beginners class! Please check out our many class choices to continue your dogs education.

Thanks Desiree and Deborah for the photo-shoot at Williams Park last October.

I have enjoyed the photos of Zoey that I purchased and use one as my computer background at work. I recieve tons of comments / compliments, but now one of the photos has helped bring about a new opportunity!

To my surprise, I received a phone call last weekend from someone I know in Fort Langley. She had been asked, by someone she knows in the film industry, if she knew of a large white dog – for a scene that they are filming.

Although I have never thought of doing this with Zoey, it was a small, easy scene…so I sent off an email –attaching one of Deborah’s photos. Well, She got the job!

The trainers were quite please to hear of all that she had been exposed – the photo shoot, Dog Pool Parties, lots of socialization, some agility, etc. Desiree, your meet-ups with the Dog Social Club certainly helped us take advantage of this wonderful opportunity!

Thanks again,

Mary & “Zoey”

My husband, Jason, and I started with two dogs when we moved into our new home, Maverick and Keiko – both Shiba Inu’s. Being that the two dogs were getting older, we felt it was time to bring in a new addition to the family so Jason and I brought home our new puppy, Jax.

Maverick (our male) was not very receptive about this. Maverick
was actually quite aggressive with Jax and he was even redirecting his aggression towards Jason and I, something we had never experienced before.

We had to break up fights, at least a few times a day, and both my
husband and myself were bit by Maverick. I started to live in fear of being at home with all the dogs and getting caught in the middle of this situations.

It was to the point we were not sure if we could keep Jax. The poor puppy was so scared he hid under the ottoman and refused to move around his own house in fear of being attacked. We decided that we wanted to try to make it work and so we went looking for a trainer to help. Jason did some research and ended up phoning Desiree and she was able to come out within a few days. We did not know what to expect nor did we know if this situation would be able to get resolved. The dogs didn’t have to like each other, but they needed to live under the same roof. So, Desiree came in and really trained my husband and I, and the dogs as well, as to what to do with this uncomfortable and dangerous situation.

She was very hands on and was able to relate to our issues. She had the same experience in her house so she knew what type of things to expect from the
dogs. In addition to the hands on training, Desiree took the time to answer our many questions and explained how the dogs were feeling, why they were acting the way they were, and what to watch out for so we could prevent future fights. Honestly, without her help we wouldn’t have figured this out at all.

She has such a great personality and is very honest about the situation. She told us that it could several months before Maverick might accept Jax into the pack. She told us that, with the right training strategy, as time went on the fights would get less and less. I have to say, that they did. We learned not to live in fear and to be much more assertive with Maverick and how to learn how to stand my ground with him. We felt so relieved to know that there was a solution to the problem.

We did her 4 private lesson package over a period of about 6-8 weeks and as of today, Maverick and Jax are already much better. The fights are few and far between and they actually sleep side by side on the bed together. They still have their moments, but it is much easier to deal with now, knowing what we now know.

We would recommend Desiree to anyone who needs a great trainer. We really appreciate her help in keeping our fur family together!

Dawne and Jason (Maverick, Keiko & Jax)

Before:

When I first got Boone at 5 months old, he’d just endured a 24-hour flight from Egypt. Now, at 15 months old, he’s still only been touched by three people – my sister, who was his first human, my boyfriend and myself. He is extremely uncomfortable with people coming up behind him and watches constantly for this, checking behind him while we’re out walking. He is so on guard even when there’s nobody behind us that I’ve gottenedgy and a feeling like there’s something back there. If a dog gets close,
he either sits or lays down so that I have to practically drag him along.  If he’s allowed to meet the dog, everything is usually fine, though occasionally there’s been a bit of growling.  If he’s not allowed to meet the dog he goes nuts, his reactivity is more intense than with people.   In this case, the prong collar that I sometimes use makes this particular situation worse and has resulted in me being bitten. I have been to several different trainers, but can’t seem to get this under control.

Update after first lesson (one week later):

I just wanted to write and tell you that I really appreciated the practical advice you gave when you came to our house last week. You gave me some new insight, and the detail of what to do and why has been very helpful.  During my granddaughter’s visit, we implemented the suggestion that rather than barking out “NO!” and
using corrections when he looked like he was going to bark (or got as far as barking), we instead focused on calming, distracting then praising him. This seemed to result in a more relaxed dog overall, and although he never stopped barking at her entirely before she left, it seemed less intense.  By the end of the visit, he was taking treats from her pretty readily, and even sat when she asked him to on a couple of occasions.

During walks, I have been turning and walking him briskly away when he starts to focus on other dogs/people, and its kept him from reacting 90% of the time. We still have lots of work to do of course, but having the tools and knowing what to do helps my level of stres so that I feel much more relaxed, and that’s helpful
too.

Update: 3 weeks after the one and only lesson we did:

I just wanted to tell you that Boone’s behavior is steadily improving.  I’ve been working on building his confidence and he’s definitively responding to the gentler technique you showed me.  Over the weekend, we went on a long walk – he only growled/lunged at one man at the very beginning of our walk, I lightly corrected him for that and after that he was absolutely perfect, including allowing a dog to pass within 10 feet of him without doing anything more than looking interested!  He also behaved well when I stopped to talk to a stranger, she commented on how calm he was.   After only a minute or two, he actually approached her curiously, albeit cautiously.   A few minutes after that, two guys passed within about two feet of him, and he sat watching me, barely glancing at them.  He’s also begun looking at me when something he’s not sure about appears.  He’s getting lots of treats, and he’s come to expect them, but rather that than scaring people and going nuts when other dogs pass.    Your suggestions have already made a big difference.

Thanks,

Claudia (& “boone”)

Back in the day, trainers based most of their training on choke chain yanks and harsh intimidation techniques. Because of this they rarely recommended you train your dog before 6 months of age. Modern trainers now know it’s about positivity and using canine psychology… working with your dog not against him. There is no reason to wait until 6 months of age any longer. In fact I think you would be making a huge mistake to do so. The window of puppyhood is small and their little brains grow rapidly. What you do in those first few months really sets them up for who they will become as adult dogs.

We accept puppies into group class at 12 weeks of age provided they have received their 2nd set of vaccines. Any earlier than that I always tell my clients to enjoy bonding with their puppy and focus on potty training. That really should be enough to keep you busy from 8-12 weeks.

The whole first year I call a “rollercoaster” because your puppy changing and growing over and over, week after week, month after month. Who he is and what he does can seem unpredictable if you aren’t familiar with their stages of development. A good training routine can help smooth out those rollercoaster bumps.

Proper and ongoing socialization is another critical part of raising a puppy that you do not want to skip or even postpone. Always keeping safety in mind first, your puppy should be out experiencing life and meeting new human and doggy friends on a regular basis from as young as possible. This is the #1 and often ONLY way to prevent unwanted future aggressive behaviors. The real key is the ongoing part… don’t stop socializing… ever.

What is realistic for a puppy to learn in a group class? 

The puppy should learn basic manners about nipping, chewing, jumping, and potty training. As well as get a start on obedience commands such as sit, down, stay, come, leave it and leash walking. As I have said many times, a puppy class is not the end of the road for training, but only a beginning step. Every dog will benefit from at least one form of follow up training as they age and grow. Your dog will NOT have perfect recall or leash manners until he is long out of that one year rollercoaster we spoke of, unless you have a rare Lassie right out of the womb. That stuff takes time and effort on your part. Probably more than you think.

Set your expectations realistically, set aside plenty of time for training, and don’t forget to enjoy and have fun with your new puppy!!

“I approached my first dog training session with lots of anxiety. I had already tried another trainer prior, and didn’t feel comfortable with their approach. Desiree’s professionalism and focus put me at ease.  My Pitbull X also responded favourably to Desiree’s gentle, patient technique.  After only one lesson I was able to walk my dog on leash instead of her walking me.  Quite amazing!!!”

Sue from Surrey